New York Comic Con comes to town this week! Its the weekend we’ve all been waiting for. It’s full of geek panels, dashing celebrities, hotel parties, dealer’s room merchandise and perhaps most of all: costumes.

People spend hours, or sometimes just ten minutes, throwing together elaborate costumes of their favorite comic or film characters. The greatest spectacle of the con is seeing girls in spandex or guys dressed up as Han Solo.

However, there is an unwritten rule when it comes to cosplay: Just because you can does not mean you should.

In the spirit of the upcoming comic convention, lets go over some helpful suggestions shall we? Let’s be honest with ourselves, very few people look like Yuna from Final Fantasy X. It doesn’t mean girls of all shapes and sizes can’t cosplay as her, but we would appreciate it if cosplayers would be conscious of those around them.

The more ingenious and creative a costume the better. For example, take this guy dressed up as Han Solo in carbonite! Its originality is absolutely brilliant.

Or Star Wars legos? Genius.

Cross dressing is a vastly popular theme at cons. Sometimes they are adorable:

While sometimes they are scarring.

Cons are also one of the very few places where furry cosplay is acceptable, but even at best its still socially awkward. Dressing up as a Pickachu? Usually a good thing no matter what they look like.

But dressing up as whatever furries these are? Maybe not.

Little kids as a default can get away with pretty much anything, the cuteness factor never fails.

Also, one cannot forget the impeccable video game characters that are often seen:

Needless to say, we have a lot to look forward to at New York Comic this year! You can find myself, personally, dressed up as either Black Canary or Ramona Flowers.